An interesting video. Thanks for sharing. One thing that came to mind while watching and listing, although it has little to do with theism as much as it does relativistic morality, was the American dropping of two atom bombs on Japan in 1945. Most look back on those events today and say that, given the circumstances, they were necessary, justified, appropriate. Somewhere between 150,000 to 250,000 Japanese died as a result of the dropping of those bombs. Most were innocent civilians. Yet we look back at Harry Truman’s decision to drop atom bombs on two major Japanese cities as necessary, justified, and appropriate. And we look back at Harry Truman as one of our most courageous presidents.

I’m not moralizing about this or suggesting that it was the right or wrong thing to do at the time. But I do find it interesting how differently we view Truman and Hitler. Maybe because we won the war.

The second thing that came to mind is that most Christians I talk with will dismiss the vengeful, brutal god of the Old testament and point to the loving, caring God of the new testament. And I say to them, “but wait, aren’t they the same God? The same infallible, omnipotent, omniscient God? What happened? How did he change? Did he enroll in a 12-step program?” And they look at me as if I have two heads, but don’t have an answer.

I agree with you. I think it was Churchill who said “history will look upon me kindly… because I’m going to write it” and that does have a lot to do with how we view the acts of war. I personally can’t second guess those who made the decision to drop the bombs on Japan. One could make a career out of discussing it because it was so recent. It is different than Hitler in that it involved no direct persecution of Japanese in the way that Hitler’s actions did. Just the same, both actions are lamentable and I hope that stand as blindingly brilliant examples of what we should never do or allow to be done again. We can learn from our mistakes? No?

Christians have decidedly no sense of humor when asked to explain the differences between OT and NT gods. That is very clear.

I saw the two wooden priming pins used in Little Boy and Fat Man in the Smithsonian (together with half the Enola Gay) and became physically ill. It was the weirdest thing. My friend also became sick and we had to leave to get fresh air. Strange stuff.